Eventually the game will resolve itself to this position, with either black or white to move. Black draws by shuttling his king between h8 and g8, and there is nothing that white can do about it. He has nothing that can cover h8, so black can always scurry there unharmed.

White could try 1. Kf7, but then Kh7 kills the pawn. 1. h7 is an instant draw by stalemate because black has no moves.

For white to win, he would need to be able to attack both h8 and g8 to winkle the black king out of his hole. But with the wrong squared bishop he can only attack g8, with either bishop or pawn. Black draws by running to h8, just as in the K v K+RP example above.

Case three: White gets to win for a change.

The win with the right coloured bishop or a knight can be a little tricky, so here they are:

The fact that the sequence works with either side to move means that you don't need to worry about the sequence of moves that get to the final position. As long as you don't puish the h pawn to h7 too soon, black shouldn't get stalemated.

And with that out of my system, maybe I can dream about other things again?

If white exchanges queens quickly, this would probably be a draw as in the game. The black king would park himself on g8/h8 and that would be that. Wrong squared bishop.

But it is white to move, and the black king is open. So the winning plan would be to check the black king away from the g8/h8 safety zone and only then to exchange queens.

From here, Fritzie sees only one line to win: 59. Qf7+ Kh6 60. Qh7+ Kg5 61. h4+ with an eval of +9.8. The black king is being chased away from the h8 square so that he cannot catch the rook pawn when the queens are exchanged.

Dr. J: <Once: From here, Fritzie sees only one line to win: 59. Qf7+ Kh6 60. Qh7+ Kg5 61. h4+ with an eval of +9.8. The black king is being chased away from the h8 square so that he cannot catch the rook pawn when the queens are exchanged.>

63 Qe7+ Kd5* 64 Qg5+ wins by converting the h-pawn to a g-pawn; or, "slightly inferior" for Black, *63 ... Kd4 64 Qd6+ Kc3 65 Qc5+ exchanging Queens, and now the Black King is indeed too far away to catch the h-pawn. But essentially this is the only variation for which that is true.

Even more extraordinary is the following alternative (which I suspect a 7-piece tablebase might actually prefer):

"The final position is a draw with best play because white cannot promote the h pawn and then subsequently keep his newly promoted piece, and without promoting his pawn he does not have sufficient material to mate, as long as black doesn't lose on time."

Once: <acirce> Indeed. The game is drawn when a win cannot be achieved by either player with any series of legal moves. After the pawn promotion to a queen, black has no choice except to capture the queen because it's his only legal move. But as this leads to an instant draw he doesn't need to capture the queen because it's already drawn.

Okay, next trivia question. At what precise moment is the game drawn? When white touches his h pawn, when he reaches for and touches a queen, when his queen touches the queening square, when he releases his hand from that queen or when he presses his clock after completing his move?

fokers13: I think someone can call a game drawn when neither side has a winning plan.I mean in our example if black calls for the ref and can demonstrate an adequate defense i believe he can claim a draw.Take my opinion with a grain of salt though.

Once: <fokers13> Yes, if it's a quickplay finish. This is what the laws of chess say...

<Article 10: Quickplay Finish

If the player, having the move, has less than two minutes left on his clock, he may claim a draw before his flag falls. He shall summon the arbiter and may stop the clocks.

...

If the arbiter agrees the opponent is making no effort to win the game by normal means, or that it is not possible to win by normal means, then he shall declare the game drawn. Otherwise he shall postpone his decision or reject the claim.>

So you can't just wibble your pieces around and try to run your opponent out of time. You've got to show that you are at least trying to win.

acirce: <Okay, next trivia question. At what precise moment is the game drawn? When white touches his h pawn, when he reaches for and touches a queen, when his queen touches the queening square, when he releases his hand from that queen or when he presses his clock after completing his move?>

Tougher! I really don't have that much of a clue. It should be once the move has actually been made, and I guess that would be once he releases the hand from the queen.

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